An intracardiac blood pump is a blood pump that is at least partially introduced into the heart to deliver blood from the heart into an artery, wherein the pump may protrude through a surgical opening in the heart. Typical intracardiac blood pumps have a maximum outer diameter of about 10-15 mm. A special form of intracardiac blood pumps are intravascular blood pumps. They are introduced into the heart through the vascular system of the patient, the incision site being spaced from the heart. Typically, intracardiac blood pumps inserted (e.g., percutaneously) into a patient's body are highly miniaturized, with a maximum outer diameter of 8 mm or less. In many cases, the introduction of an intravascular pump device involves the use of a guidewire to position the device.
Examples of intracardiac and intravascular blood pumps may be found in the following references, the entire contents of each of which is incorporated by reference herein: International Publication WO/2005/016416, published Apr. 20, 2006, International Publication WO/2005/016416, published Feb. 24, 2005; International Publication WO/2002/043791, published Jun. 6, 2002; International Publication WO/2002/015963, published Feb. 28, 2002; International Publication WO/2001/039817, published Jun. 7, 2001; and International Publication WO/1999/058170 published Nov. 18, 1999.
Further examples include the family of blood pumps available from Abiomed, Inc. of Danvers, Mass. under the Impella brand, including the Impella 2.5 pump, the Impella 5.0 pump, and the Impella LD.